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Milo Murphy's Law Wiki:Sock puppetry
Sock puppetry refers to the use of more than one account to conduct fraud by hiding one's identity. This can be seen as disruptive and in violation of policy. This page has therefore been created to highlight legitimate and illegitimate uses of multiple accounts. Whenever a second account is created and used illegitimately, administrators should block the account indefinitely, providing the reason Abusing multiple accounts as selected from the drop-down menu, and, as recommended, list the username of the person operating the main account in the reason box for providing further details. Legitimate uses of multiple accounts Not all uses of multiple accounts are bad. These are acceptable instances in which you may use multiple accounts. 'Clean start' If you need a fresh start as a new user account, you must contact an administrator on this wiki. Your current account will be permanently blocked however you are allowed to make a new one. You will be required to add a notice to your user page. If you want to switch back to your then-current account, ask an administrator to unblock your old account and block your new one permanently. 'Bot accounts' If you need an account to make automated or semi-automated edits, you must obtain community approval through a discussion thread and create the account. This account will be referred to as a bot, and will be placed in the bot user group through Fandom support to prevent it from spamming the wiki activity and recent changes. 'Test accounts' If you want to test certain functions on the wiki without affecting the edit history of your main account, you may create a separate account for such rare purposes. Illegitimate uses of multiple accounts There are times when using multiple accounts is not okay. When used for the following reasons, second accounts falling under these categories are considered sock puppets, and will be indefinitely blocked. 'Splitting contributions' This refers to any attempt to make it appear as if two or more people are editing through the use of two or more accounts, when you are merely operating these accounts as a single individual. Whenever this occurs, both accounts will be blocked indefinitely and we will need to receive some more information from you about which account you prefer to keep to continue editing, such as on Community Central or any other related wiki page, such as your message wall if possible. If you create a second account without obtaining permission through consulting an administrator, it will be blocked indefinitely. 'Evading blocks' When you are blocked, simply wait out the duration of your block and it will expire. Try to edit on the wiki without engaging in the same behavior that got you blocked in the first place. If you are caught creating a second account to bypass your block during the block on your main account is in effect, you will have your block duration reset or extended, and your second account you use to evade will be blocked indefinitely and permanently banned from editing. '"Good" hand and "bad" hand accounts' This requires operating two accounts, but keeping your main account on the good hand, while performing vandalism or any other sort of deliberately disruptive activity on the bad hand. This will lead to an indefinite blocking of the bad hand sock account and will likely lead to a block or warning against the main good hand account. 'Self assistance to create an illusion of support' Sometimes, users will create second accounts to contribute to a debate to sway it towards a certain side of the discussion. Usually, the behavioral evidence here will be similar as well, and any sock votes towards a certain side will be removed. The socks you use to cast such votes will be permanently blocked, and you'll likely receive a block on the main account as well. Meat puppetry While this is not sock puppetry itself, meat puppetry refers to recruiting others to edit during the duration of your block, even in cases where it is indefinite. Like sock puppetry, meat puppetry can lead to you getting your block extended as well as a block on the other user's account that you're recruiting to edit for you. If a blocked user is asking you to edit for them, please report this to a Milo Murphy's Law Wikia administrator. Meat puppetry also refers to asking someone you know to edit for you to contribute towards your side of the debate whenever there's a discussion going on. CheckUser The global staff have access to a special tool called , which can be accessed through . They can IP check edits to check for sock puppetry and vandalism hidden behind the use of multiple accounts. This is not always entirely accurate, as two people could be using one IP, or one person can be using two IP's, but it provides for a bigger understanding of the situation. Generally, staff do not hand out these tools to local administrators, but there are rare instances in which they will. If you request an IP check through Fandom staff, provide the following details: #The username behind the main account and any of the second accounts that are suspected to be socks of the main account. #Any disruption that could have resulted through the abuse of multiple accounts. (Note that Fandom Staff require an explanation of any disruption that has possibly occurred through the use of sock puppet accounts.) #Any diff links or other forms of behavioral evidence from the contributions of the two accounts. If the accounts are linked, the staff will respond to you over email saying that the users have made edits from the same IP, and we can take action as necessary. The duck test The saying goes, "[[wikipedia:WP:DUCK|if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably '''is' a duck.]]''" For example, if a user gets blocked and comes back five minutes later to stir up the same type of behavior that got them blocked at precisely the same tone under a new account, we can assume it is an obvious sock and block it indefinitely, more so if the user is using a similar username as well.